Stretching-pliers.



G. P. ROBERTSON.

'STRETCHING PLIERS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. I4, 1916.

Patented June 4,1918.

/ INVENTOR WITNEYSS ATTo R N EY GEORGE E. RoEER'rsoN, E BE'rHEsDA,MARYLAND.

STRETCHING-PLIERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 4t, 1918.

Application filed November 14, 1916. Serial No. 131,296.

. To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE P. ROBE TSON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Bethesda, in the county of Montgomery and State of Maryland,have invented new and useful Improvements in Stretching-Phers, of whichthe following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in tools, and isparticularly directed to the pincer type of tools.

The primary object of the invention is to produce a tool comprising twopivoted members each including a handle and a jaw, means being arrangedupon one of the handles whereby to engage with the other handle to lockboth of the handles, each of the jaws having their active faces groovedto receive removable co-acting toothed members and one of the jaws beingprovided with offset fingers forming a fulcrum member whereby when amaterial is gripped between the jaws the said finger may be arrangedupon the edge of the structure to which the material is to be attached,the finger being further provided with an adjustable element in thenature of a set screw so that a further adjustment or stretching of thematerial may be thus provided for, and whereby the material after beingstretched may be tacked or otherwise secured to the frame upon which itis arranged.

A further object of the invention is to produce a tool of this classwhich shall embody the desirable features of simplicity, cheapness,strength and efliciency.

With the above and other objects in view the improvement resides in theconstruction, combination and arrangement of parts set forth in thefollowing specification and falling within the scope of the appendedclaim.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a view illustrating the application of the tool,

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the tool, and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view approximately on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

The improved tool in the showing of Fig.

' '7 1 of the drawing is illustrated as employed in stretching wire 1over a frame 2, but it is here to be stated that the device may beemployed as a stretching implement for other material as will, it isthought, be obvious. The tool includes two jaw members 3 and 4respectively which are pivotally connected, as at 5, and each of saidjaws a bail member is provided with a rearwardly extending portion fromthe said pivot forming the same with handles 6 and 7 respectively. Thetool, at its pivoted portion, isrounded and is provided with atransverse notch 8, and the walls provided by the notch in therespective elements of the tool may be sharpened, and the tool may bethus employed for cutting wire, nails or the like. The tool between thepivot and the jaws proper thereof has its inner face concaved, as at 9,whereby'the tool may be employed for engaging with a headed element, thehead of the said element being received in the depression provided bythe concaved portions 9 of the jaws 3 and 4. The jaws 3 and f have theiractive faces provided with transverse grooves 10 and 11 respectively,and the side walls of these grooves may be inclined, the said groovesbeing provided to receive auxiliary block members 12 and 13respectively, the said blocks having their co-acting faces toothed orroughened, as illustrated in the drawings. These blocks may be sustainedin the grooves in any desired or preferred manner. Preferably boltmembers 14 pass through openings in the said blocks and enter threadedorifices in the respective jaws 3 and 1. The handle 6 of the jaw 4 haspivotally secured to the outer end thereof 15, and the handle 7 of thejaw 3, at the outer edge thereof is roughened or provided with teeth 16whereby the connecting element of the substantially U-shaped bail 15 mayengage with the said serrations or teeth 16 to effectively hold thehandles 6 and 7 locked and the jaws 3 and 4 in ositive engagement.

ntegrally formed upon one of the jaws, say, the jaw 1, adjacent to thepivot 5 of the tool is an angularly extending member providing a finger17 and this finger serves as a fulcrum element whereby when the wiremesh is arranged between the jaws and the handles locked, and the saidmesh stretched by the operator of the tool, the finger 17 is adapted tobe brought against one of the edges of the frame 2 and to serve as afulcrum member to assist in the further stretching of the mesh. Inaddition to serving as a fulcrum member the finger 17 also serves tohold the tool against the frame and as illustrated by the drawings Ihave provided the finger 17 with a threaded opening through which ispassed thershank of a set screw 18, and it will be noted by manipulatingthe set screw the tool may be adjusted With relation to the frame andthe wire mesh may be thus further stretched.

l/Vhen the blocks 12 and 13 are removed the tool may, of course, beemployed for other purposes than that set forth.

From the above description, taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawing, the simplicity of the device as well as the advantages thereofwill, it is thought, be perfectly apparent to those skilled in the artto which such invention appertains without further detailed description.

Having thus described the invention, What I claim is:

' In a tool designed for stretching unsesions and means for locking thehandles to retain the jaws closed, an angular finger formed on one ofsaid members adjacent the pivot thereof, and a thumb screw threadedthrough said finger and adapted to contact with one edge of the frame tolock the tool on the frame and to serve as a fulcrum member for saidtool.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

GEORGE P. ROBERTSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. G. I

